Look’s like nothing could stop the “Breaking Dawn,” juggernaut in its second week, but Kermit and the gang gave it the good ol’ Muppet try. And didn’t do too badly for themselves either, considering their “reality” mirrors the movie’s plot about being long out of commission.

“The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn – Part 1” held on to the number one spot to add $62.3 million to its coffins, er, coffers for a two-week domestic gross(-out) of $221 million. “The Muppets” took in $42 million and grabbed second place. Especially good when you consider the movie cost $45 million to make. And “Happy Feet Two” dropped only 13.5 percent from last week to latch onto third place and another $18.3 million.

The long holiday weekend’s two other family films, “Arthur Christmas” and “Hugo,” landed at numbers four and five, respectively. The 3-D Brit-toon’s $17 million take disappointed – it was playing on 3,376 screens. Meanwhile, Martin Scorsese’s first foray into family-friendly fare – and 3-D – ranked lower with $15.3 million, but it was shown on less than 40 percent the number of screens.

Other notes: “The Descendants” continues to impress with a $21,328 per screen average in it’s second week of wide release. Once thought to be surefire Oscar-bait, Clint Eastwood’s “J. Edgar” already tumbled out of the top ten in its third week with $6.7 million.

Lower on the list, two artsier offerings had fantastic first weeks, each playing on only four screens. The David Cronenberg Freud/Jung fest “A Dangerous Method” managed a whopping $60,250 average, while the silent, French, black-and-white, Oscar frontrunner “The Artist” earned $52,500 per screen.

CJ Lais

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